Kukuta
by chloemcg
Summary: Sora, Donald and Goofy return to the pride lands to find that Simba and Nala have a daughter named Kiara but quickly discover shes missing. So the trio go on a mission to find the missing cub but quickly find that she is being pursued by Heartless. Can they save the day?
1. chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of kingdom heart or Disney or lion king 1 or 2, the rights to all of them belong to their proper owners and NOT ME!**

 **Kukuta**

* * *

The Pridelands were healing fast after the whole incident with Scar, the last ruler of the lands, and all was somewhat relaxed since the last visit of three certain heroes.

The heartless had apparently gone into hiding alongside the hyenas and everything had seemed much brighter and healthier, the air carrying a fresh new atmosphere.

Sora walked through the pride lands for the third time, once again trying to grow accustomed to walking on four legs instead of two. He had found it rather irritating that he had been in a little pint-sized body belonging to a lion cub and was still having trouble with adjusting to walking on all fours.

Donald Duck and Goofy seemed to have adapted much quicker, though; Donald had —once again— taken on the form of a duck with a horn bill's body, his whole body white with tiny hints of baby blue adorning his feathery chest plumage and the tips of his primary feathers. He also wore his blue sailor hat whilst Goofy had taken on the form of a tortoise with a yellow shell and a green plastron, he even had his normal face and he wore his normal green hat which had a bone-shaped top.

Sora was turned into an adolescent lion cub, seeming to be between the stages of adolescence and cub hood, with his normal brown spiky hair which matched the bushy spiky tip of his tail. His underbelly, muzzle and paws were chalk white. He had his normal blue pools filled with naive, kind innocence and the whites of his eyes had turned a soft shade of beige yellow.

The trademark items were the chain necklace with the ivory crown pendant he wore around his neck and he held the key blade in his mouth whilst his jaws clamped down upon the handle.

The trio had come to simply check up on Simba's pride. The last time they had come, they had to deal with Simba's great reluctance to rule due to the overwhelming fear that had built up within his cautious heart.

They also found that Nala was expecting a cub...Simba's cub.

So, of course, Sora and Donald and Goofy had decided to go and visit the Pride and see how everything was going.

Upon strolling through the nice lush plains, they could not help but notice that things had improved already. A lot of greenery had started to grow back since the last time; the place was looking a lot less desolate and had a lot more life to it. Trees were now bearing leaves and fruit, a plethora of the wildebeests and zebras and other herbivores had returned to the lands. The skies were blue and the wind was much lighter and fresher and it purified the trios lungs and made them see how this land was cherished by the inhabitants of the Pride lands. Even the pride rock had regained all its former glory as it stood proud and tall with the sunlight beaming over it.

Upon scaling up the stable slope of Pride rock, Sora looked over to Donald and then Goofy and then back to what was straight in front of him. They hadn't said much since their arrival so Sora decided to spark up some conversation, a nice and friendly conversation.

"So...what do you think'll happen this time?" He asked, furrowing a brow at his friends.

His answer was a simple shrug given by Goofy, "Gawrsh, Sora, I dunno...I guess we just gotta wait and see."

Sora's whiskers bristled a bit and his eyes hardened a tad when he stopped dead in his tracks upon seeing a familiar Lion standing on top of the peak of the Pride rock. That proud figure looked like a brand of fire in the strong sunlight beaming down on the lands as he felt the wind tousle his bright red mane.

Sora's deep sea abyss blue eyes lit up in recognition and he lifted his right front paw and pointed up at the adult lion.

"Hey, look!" The dark brown cub exclaimed "Its Simba!"

Donald and Goofy smiled happily upon seeing the familiar lion whom they had befriended not too long ago.

Simba seemingly looked out into the distance and he had a serious expression on his face whilst the wind tussled his red mane and his whiskers brushed against the wind too. He looked so regal and sophisticated standing there, oblivious to the fact that he had some visitors.

Sora, Donald and Goofy all ran up to meet the king and were quite elated when they all saw the familiar lioness, queen Nala exit from the den within with a warm smile on her muzzle. Nala looked quite healthy and some would even say that she glowed, it was a glow that apparently never left even after her pregnancy. The slender lioness beamed upon noticing the three friends that were present and assisted when Scar's reign had ended.

Nala slipped passed them and wandered up to Simba before she proceeded to sharply nudge her mate and thus made him zip back from the realms of thoughts that plagued his obviously troubled mind.

Simba blinked with confusion multiple times and turned around to see why Nala had nudge him smiled wide and toothily whence he saw the familiar trio.

"Sora! Donald! Goofy!?" The big lion joyfully pounced on the three and started to nuzzle them like a big playful pussy cat.

Sora smiled sheepishly as he felt Simba's whiskers tickle his tummy whilst he lain on his back with all four of his paws in the air. He found this to be completely awkward and welcomed this lion equivalent of a friendly hug. He lightly shoved the older male lion away and climbed to his paws to stand back up; he stumbled backwards a bit whilst Donald and Goofy smiled happily at seeing their old friend.

"What are you guys doing here?" Nala asked, casting a sweet at Simba.

Sora replied as he climbed back up to his fours, putting the key blade away as it vanished into thin air, "We came to check up on things here."

"And we were hoping to see the young heir of the Pridelands too!" Donald added excitedly.

Simba's happy demeanour vanished immediately after the word "heir" was uttered. His eyes were downcast yet his expression was firm, clearly the cub was the source of worry for the king. He let out a long hard exhale as he looked down at his front paws.

Sora instantly picked up on this and frowned "Is everything alright?"

Simba didn't reply whilst he continued to look down worriedly at his own front paws and Nala proceeded to comfort her mate. The lioness burrowed her head into Simba's fiery red mane and looked at the three visitors with a small smile of reassurance being cast over to Simba.

She, unlike the lion, was more confident and started to explain, "Simba's just worried about Kiara. She went off to play awhile ago but she hasn't come back."

Sora and Donald and Goofy looked at one another. So the two had a daughter named Kiara? Yet she was missing? That didn't sound very good. They weren't even sure if any heartless had been left over since the last time they came to the Pride lands and that fact made this news seem a little more serious.

They were all silent for several long moments whilst they pondered upon the information and processed what to do before Goofy spoke up, the tortoise goof stepped forwards and offered with a small smile, "Want us to go out an' look for her?"

The king and queen lions, along with the younger lion and the duck/bird looked up and all eyes were on Goofy within three seconds of those words leaving his lips.

Sora looked dumbfounded after hearing the suggestion while Donald's jaw was slack as the lower bit of his duck bill had pretty much hit the ground, his blue eyes were wide with his dark pupils shrank into tiny dots to emphasise his shock of what was happening. Of course, neither of them minded searching for a lost cub but they didn't have much info such as their way around or what Kiara looked like or where to even start looking!

Nala spoke up, breaking both Sora and Donald's train of thoughts.

"Would you? That would be great!"

Goofy saluted, as did Sora and Donald —who had gotten over their stunned states of mind and just decided to agree to find the missing cub. After all, they felt that they should anyway since there weren't any heartless about and they didn't have anything better to do. The trio just decided to get some information and then get on with their mission.

Sora smiled to the two rulers and asked them "Okay, where should we start looking?"

Simba's face suddenly darkened considerably as a rather troubled look etched upon his face. His head lowered and he glanced to the ground at his paws as though he were considering whether to tell the three, he took a deep breath and then he looked Sora, Donald and Goofy in the eye. He looked somewhat unsure of himself.

"Well, she should be somewhere in the Pridelands on the path I had marked. I had also sent Timon and Pumbaa on her tail...but they could get kind of distracted sooo..."

Donald picked up what the lion was saying.

"She could be anywhere?"

Simba sighed, "I'm really hoping she hadn't gone to the Outlands."

Sora tilted his head to one side in confusion and perplexity.

"Outlands?"

Nala nodded, taking over from her husband, "It's a place where the Outsiders had been banished."

Sora looked at Donald and Goofy. Something told him that he shouldn't ask about who the outsiders were and he simply decided to assume that it was better not to ask, considering that the name was enough to send chills down his spine and how it made Simba's very aura change from light-hearted to surprisingly darkened made him realise that he probably really shouldn't ask any more about it.

After a moment or so of awkward silence, Sora spoke up once more and smiled confidently.

"Alright, we'll go and find Kiara for you."

Nala smiled and nodded her head gratefully.

"Thank you, Sora."

That was when the three friends left pride rock and went off on their mission to find out where the princess had gone. But what they didn't know was that they had no idea of what they were heading into and what awaited them when they were to find the little lost cub they were searching for.

They were to find that things were not as peaceful as what had first appeared...

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 **A/N: Just a quick note, the title is actually "Finding you" but I just decided to make it the Swahili translation because I thought it would be a good idea...and I couldn't come up with anything better.**

 **After watching the lion king Kingdom hearts level, I thought to make a sequel Kingdom hearts lion king version.**

 **I hope you guys like it.**

 **:)**

 **-Chloemcg**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of kingdom heart or Disney or lion king 1 or 2, the rights to all of them belong to their proper owners and NOT ME!**

 **Kukuta**

* * *

The blazing African sun had started to show signs of sinking, making way for evening, as the prey animals proceeded to get their fill before the sun truly started to set.

Sora, Donald and Goofy knew that they would have to hurry before it was nighttime and they didn't want to cause Simba nor Nala any unnecessary panic should their daughter be found under the cover of darkness. This scenario wouldn't be a good one since the adolescent-cub key-blade wielder could just imagine the look on Simba's face should it take awhile for three of the universes heroes so much time to search for a single lost cub.

"Kiara? Kiara, where are you?"

Sora called out, looking from left to right so he could try and catch a glimpse of the little lion cub. He had taken to walking alongside both Donald and Goofy, who simply walked/flew through the tall savannah grass; it tickled Sora's brown fur and his ocean blue irises were filled with worry as he looked everywhere for the daughter of Nala and Simba. He'd hoped that this wouldn't take too long since he feared of what kind of enemies would come out after dark.

He didn't want to bump into any hyenas or any other type of thing that could attack them...especially if Heartless were, in fact, lurking around these parts because that would be just the worst.

"Do you think we'll find Kiara?" Goofy asked.

"We have to." Donald replied to Goofy's question, clutching his magic staff in his feet with his toes curled around it.

The pride lands looked a whole lot greener since the last time they were there; the grass was luscious, the trees were ranging from tall to small with healthy little buds of leaves or flowers growing on the tip of each branch, there was the occasional animal grazing nearby, this place seemed way more lively then it was the last two times they were there.

And thus far there was no Heartless in sight.

As the three kept up their search, none of them could cease reflecting back on that odd thing about Simba; the lion king seemed to have this certain darkness slow-brewing within him...at least whenever the outsiders were mentioned. It was deeply troubling to notice that kind of simmering hatred in their friend. Sora, Donald and Goofy didn't want to think about what would happen if that hatred consumed him too much...and they had a feeling that it was those negative feelings towards these "outlanders" that heartless would be born and then feed from...

"AHHHHH!"

Sora, Donald and Goofy all froze simultaneously.

That cry...

All three of their hearts froze instantly with fear of the implications of that scream as it sounded like somebody was in trouble!

Sora's ears perked and his muzzle tightened whilst he straightened up to stand tall on all fours. He recognised that sound and his heart stopped dead in his chest whence his brain registered what exactly the origins of the sound was, he even lost Donald and Goofy he was running so fast. He cantered towards the area with a sense of urgency and hurried to catch the assentive on what was transpiring here.

He found himself skidding to a sudden halt when he reached the edge of a cliff and he peered around downward, getting a good view of what was going on down below.

Sora gasped at what he saw.

A little cub with golden/honey-fur (presumably Kiara) screamed, running as fast as her paws could carry her whilst she had a large black alligator-like creature in hot pursuit of her; it had sharp jagged teeth, glinting yellow eyes and purple and yellow zig-zagged patterns decorating its reptilian shaped form.

She looked terrified as she tried to run and keep herself running in order to try and safely allude it.

Dashing alongside her, though, was another lion cub with ruddy-coloured fur and he had a tuft of black fur atop his head that indicated that his mane was starting to grow. He also had a brownish muzzle and sharp deep green eyes...actually, he kind of looked like someone familiar. Sora shook his head. No! He shouldn't be thinking on that right now, he should be trying to save them!

He gasped in shock and could feel his heart freeze as the realisation of the situation started to sink in; those creatures chasing the cubs...they were heartless and there was no mistaking it!

From what he could see, the two cubs had been chased towards a river where some logs awaited them and the logs appeared to act as stepping stones as the two younglings bounced across and tried to find somewhere to get safe from the creatures pursuing them. It didn't take long until the two cubs were forced to take refuge in a small tree that poked out of the murky water, the tree looked old and had naked branches that looked as though they could barely cope with the weight of one cub let alone two.

To make matters worse, the Heartless were gaining on them.

Sora gasped.

He couldn't wait up for Donald and Goofy because the Heartless might have gotten to the two cubs again and he wasn't willing to take such a chance.

"H-Hang on! I'm coming!" He called out to the cubs, noticing that they were now cornered and he proceeded to glide forwards and stopped just at the edge of the cliff, leaning over as to get a bit closer to the frightened pair; he tried his best to reach out towards them as he craned his neck and quickly got their attention. The young cubs looked up at Sora, surprised, they couldn't help but feel engulf the two of them as the Heartless drew closer.

Sora tried to slowly climb down the tree to reach the terrified lion cubs.

The two cubs seemed hesitant to trust the strange lion whom was slightly older then both of them, but it was either trust him or get swallowed up whole in darkness. After glancing to one another they both decidedly agreed on letting the brownish lion help them in getting out of this mess.

The little brown cub looked up towards Sora and looked at him with pleading green eyes.

"P-Please! We can't hold on much longer!"

Sora hurried when the young male cub said that and, when he was sure he was close enough, he was quick to act to try and rescue them. He craned his neck so he could grab the honey-coloured cub and snatched her up into his mouth as he carried her by the scruff of the neck. He was very surprised that he was even strong enough to lift a cub who was just a bit smaller than him but decided to focus on getting the both of them to safety.

But he started to feel this sensation of dread fill his heart so he glanced down for a split second and found that his weight was starting to cause the branches to creak and his ear twitched. He could hear the sound of the wood supporting his weight cracking and slowly snapping as splinters started to burst from the faltering branch and poke at the pads beneath his paws.

A gasp slipped through his throat.

He had to hurry!

Hastening his efforts, Sora craned his neck and grabbed the young male cub into his mouth and he could feel as his own head dipped slightly as the cub shifted as he hung by the scruff of his neck. The human-turned lion carefully adjusted his position so he could lift his head and he swung his head around, making sure not to hurt the brown cub by biting too hard on his scruff in his sharp teeth, and released him and he watched him fly upwards and land safely on the cliff edge above.

Sora sighed and ventured downwards, making sure to step as lightly as possible as to not make the tree break and thus make both himself and the younger lion become prey for the waiting Heartless below them.

Now it was the female cub's turn.

He repeated the same action which he had done with the boy and he bent down carefully, bit down gently on her scruff and picked her up, backed off with his eyes fixed on the heartless who still seemed quite intent on approaching the both of them and seemed to be making a frighteningly fast effort to make it to them, and then he whirled around on all fours and started to make a four-legged sprint up the branch with the honey-coloured cub in his mouth but he almost tripped when the branch started to quiver beneath him as he clung tightly to it, claws digging into the wood.

He glanced down quick and saw that one of the heartless had managed to grab the lower portion of the branch in its huge jaws and was trying to break it.

Sora suddenly recalled the trick Nala had taught him, Donald and Goofy the first time they came to the Pridelands and he swiftly climbed back to all four paws and poured every ounce of strength into his legs as he sprung into the air leapt to the edge of the cliff with the young female cub still in his mouth.

Time seemed to stop as the adolescent finally accomplished getting the two cubs to safety.

Sora, panting hard with his heart pumping hard in his chest, put the female cub down on the ground and looked down at them with blue eyes shimmering with concern for their wellbeing. Even still, something about the male cub made him feel slightly uneasy...he couldn't pinpoint how but something about the brown cub was off.

"Are you two alright?"

"W-We're alright." Kiara replied, nodding.

"You're Kiara, aren't you? Your father sent me to find you."

Kiara flinched slightly when he said those words, it was as if she had done something she wasn't supposed to and knowing that her parents had known that she'd disobeyed them about not being allowed to go into the Outlands made her skin crawl.

The key blade-wielder opened his mouth to say something further to the youngsters but his ear twitched when he heard the lowly growls and grunts of more Heartless. He swiftly turned his head and saw a few Heartless materialising out of thin air in a vape of shadowy smoke, some of the new Heartless looked similar in body structure to vultures with glowing yellow eyes whilst the crocodilian Heartless had somehow succeeded in climbing up the tree to try and get the cubs who were so full of innocence and had hearts overflowing with light.

They were coming and they looked ready to pounce.

Sora used his left hind paw to push both cubs further behind him whilst he glared sharp daggers at the Heartless.

"Stay behind me!"

"A-Alright..." Came Kiara's meek response.

"Donald! Goofy!" He called.

Instantly, Donald and Goofy were at Sora's side with shield and wand at the ready.

Donald scowled angrily at the Heartless with his grip on his magic staff tightening, sparking with Disney kingdom magic that he had learned long ago, as he flapped his wings to keep himself in the air with the little forked tail of his signature blue sailor hat blowing in the wind. His duck bill formed a tight frown.

Goofy in his tortoise form kept a tight grip on his knight shield and his muzzle had also formed a frown but more of determination then any actual anger, his dog ears bristling slightly as the brows above his cartoon eyes knitted together to paint a look of protective resolution.

Sora felt as the Keyblade materialised into his mouth out of thin air and he bit down to grab hold of it, holding the giant key-like sword with its blade glinting in the sunlight. He stomped his paws down into the dirt and his sapphire blue eyes became cold and full of protective fury as he looked dead ahead at the group of Heartless coming towards him and Kiara and her little friend.

Without warning, the trio charged ahead at the waiting Heartless as they were determined to complete their task and bring Kiara home.

But they were unaware that they were being observed closely by an unseen threat.

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 **A/N: Second chapter ahoy! This is what I think would happen if KH had a first encounter with Kiara and Kovu...a reenactment of their meeting but with Heartless instead of crocodiles! I hope you lot enjoyed it.**

 **-Chloemcg**


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